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Warner Bros readying Casablanca 2

It's what the world has been waiting for: the long-awaited sequel to Casablanca. Really.

We suspect you sometimes think we make these things up. As we’ve learned in the years doing this site, though, it’s the truth that’s often a lot stranger than the nonsense we could possibly come up with.

Take this story. The rightly-regarded all-time classic Casablanca (a film which still demands to be seen alongside the Woody Allen-starring Play It Again Sam) may be the beneficiary of a belated sequel.

It’s been 70 years since Humphrey Bogart’s Rick and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa left the big screen, but their story is set to be picked up again. The basis for it is a treatment that was written three decades ago by Howard Koch, who penned the original film. His son, Peter Koch, is reportedly putting together a screenplay based on this, that will pick up 20 years after Casablanca, and focus on the child of Ilsa and Rick.

A Casablanca follow-up is nothing new, and in the immediate aftermath of the success of the 1942 original, the studio investigated a follow-up. Furthermore, this current take on the story has been doing the rounds for a while, too.

There’s still some way to go to get Casablanca 2 to the screen. If it happens, expect a fourth entry in the Man With No Name trilogy, possibly Solaris 2, E.T. Too, and don’t rule out Son Of Citizen Kane, either.

The days of the Clamp Cable Network’s once satirical line grow closer: “Tonight, on the Clamp Cable Classic Movie Channel, don't miss Casablanca, now in full colour with a happier ending”…